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Trust & Safety Program Risk Assessments
Guidepost has a substantial practice assisting companies, organizations, and institutions with their Trust & Safety programs. Our solutions in this mission-critical area help protect your stakeholders, including customers, content creators, hosts, and users.
As part of our work, we conduct risk assessments, due diligence analysis, and platform benchmarking. We can evaluate the platform’s current Trust & Safety (T&S) governance, enforcement posture, and the ability to detect and mitigate high-risk behaviors. If needed, we can assist with the implementation of technical upgrades to help enhance your T&S Program.
This includes identifying and addressing behaviors linked to:
- Human trafficking.
- CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material).
- Coerced content.
- Violence.
- Money laundering.
- Related exploitation.
- Moderation of deepfakes.
Pre-Acquisition Due Diligence
We conduct pre-acquisition due diligence for clients who are considering investing in platforms. This specialized work may include:
- Governance, Compliance, and Process Review
Examine Community Standards, Terms of Service, enforcement frameworks, appeals processes, and other governance flows. - Review processes from CSAM awareness through reporting and 90-day evidence preservation.
- Evaluate emergency disclosure playbooks, data transfer practices, and other compliance documentation.
- Validate compliance with legal and reporting obligations, such as CyberTipline intake and evidence preservation—including limited spot checks of report quality.
- Analyze queue design, triage criteria, dual-control procedures for restores, and key metrics.
- Establish baselines for category prevalence, reviewer throughput, re-offense rates, and other KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Content Moderation Technical Stack Analysis
We analyze the content moderation technical stack, specifically concerning CSAM:
- Evaluate hash-matching coverage (e.g., PhotoDNA) at upload and at rest.
- Assess de-duplication and auto-blocking behaviors.
CASE STUDY
Guidepost worked with a major retailer to identify gaps in the onboarding process on their “gig economy” platform. Working closely with the retailer’s internal compliance team, Guidepost conducted in depth analysis of data provided by the independent workers when requesting access to the platform. This included analyzing shared addresses by multiple applicants and confirming validity of addresses being use. In addition, Guidepost reviewed data to determine the use of shared accounts and multiple devices using a single account. This was to determine more accurately who was accessing the platform. Guidepost conveyed to our client multiple recommendations for remediating issues and further reducing compliance vulnerabilities. Guidepost identified enhancements that would improve the efficacy of the independent workers identity verification process. The remediation suggestions were intended to address deficiencies identified during our review of the program and further enhance the client’s ability to detect and prevent fraudulent activity on the platform.
As we compiled our recommendations, Guidepost recognized that the client had an interest in ensuring that the independent contractor experience was efficient and user-friendly, so efforts to reduce or deter fraud must not be unduly burdensome. In addition, Guidepost was mindful that any enhanced procedures must be consistent with the gig economies independent contractor model. Taking all this into account, Guidepost was able to ensure that access to the platform was consistent with industry standards.
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